Occurrence of Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases of Livestock in Zambezi Region: A Review

Percy Mashebe, Japhet Robert Lyaku, Fransisco Mausse

Abstract

In an ecosystem such as Zambezi strip with characteristic patchwork of different land uses, land tenure types and boundaries, including country borders, veterinary fences, national parks, communal lands, government land, and forest reserves; the role played by free-ranging wildlife is a key point in the occurrence of endemic diseases such as those transmitted by tick vectors to livestock, human and wildlife hosts. Wildlife roams among different countries due to the porous nature of the borders, which makes trans-boundary management of such vector-borne diseases and natural resources a crucial issue in the southern African region. The large populations of wildlife in the tropics provide a reservoir of ticks and infective microbes that spread to domestic animals during grazing in the same environment. Ticks infesting livestock transmit numerous kinds of viruses, fungi, bacteria and protozoa between livestock, wildlife and human hosts causing poor health and socio-economic losses to their respective hosts. Since studies have indicated that there is no single, ideal solution to the control of ticks and tick-borne diseases, it becomes pertinent for stakeholders to use an integrated control, prevention and management approaches involving a comprehensive knowledge of all aspects of the vectors (ticks), hosts and aetiologic agents, particularly focusing on their biology, epidemiology and ecological issues. This review work focused on the current situation of ticks infesting livestock in Zambezi region, typical ticks of livestock, common genera of ticks infesting livestock in Zambezi region, common tick-borne diseases in Zambezi region, habitats and geographical prevalence of ticks as well as epidemiology of ticks and tick-borne diseases.

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